This invention relates to a grinding machine comprising a frame having an upper portion in the form of a stationary table for carrying a grinding-wheel slide or carriage, and a bed provided with slideways in the upper portion thereof in order to support a moving table for carrying the headstock and tailstock between which is mounted the workpiece to be ground.
In known machines of this type, the grinding-wheel is mounted in overhung position on one end of a shaft which is rotatably mounted in a long bearing fixed on the grinding-wheel carriage (slide). In the first place, an overhung or cantilevered form of structural design has never been considered as truly rational, especially in the case of high-precision machines (in which tolerances are limited to less than one micron). In the second place, further disadvantages arise from the known type of construction under consideration. The grinding-wheel is in fact displaced on one side to a point located outside all the slideways and the lines of connection between the bearing points of the grinding-wheel shaft and the frame are of relatively substantial length; this is a cause of deformations which are liable to have an adverse effect on the desired standard of accuracy. Furthermore, the dressing-wheel which is employed for truing the grinding-wheel and the work plane of which must necessarily be located in the plane of the grinding-wheel is also displaced laterally on the grinding-wheel carriage and also mounted in overhung position. This again results in relatively long lines of connection between the grinding-wheel shaft and the dressing-wheel shaft.